Based on a real-life incident, The Straight Story centres on two elderly brothers, neither of whom have spoken to one another for 10 years. When Lyle has a stroke, Alvin decides to mend some bridges and travel the 350 miles to Lyle's home in Wisconsin.
So begins Lynch's amazing road movie and Alvin's incredible six-week journey through the mid-western small-town landscape, atop a trailer-towing John Deere riding lawnmower. Sissy Spacek plays Alvin's anxious but resigned daughter while veteran actor Richard Harmsworth is the tenacious, infuriating and vulnerable Alvin.